Census reports 506,000 workers commute into Cook

Cook County has among the highest number of commuters coming from another county in the nation, the U.S. Census Bureau reported in new estimates released from the American Community Survey. Nationally, 27.4 percent of workers commute outside the county where they live.

Among workers in Cook County, 505,593 live outside the county, according to 2006-2010 estimates from the American Community Survey. For example, 139,477 workers commute in from DuPage County, 93,471 from Will County and 80,833 from Lake County. Meanwhile, 301,182 residents of Cook County leave the county for work, with 135,387 going to DuPage County, 63,520 to Lake County and 38,179 to Will County.

"It is well known that Cook County draws a lot of commuters to work. The detailed information in the American Community Survey tells us where Cook County workers are coming from, where its residents work, and how its commuting patterns compare to those of other large counties," said Brian McKenzie, a Census Bureau statistician who studies commuting. "This information shapes our understanding of the boundaries of local and regional economies, as people and goods move across the nation's transportation networks."

The American Community Survey also provides annual estimates about how commuters in Cook County travel to work and how long it takes them to get there.

Means of transportation:

• In 2011, 62.2 percent of workers in Cook County drove to work alone, compared with 76.4 percent nationally.

• Meanwhile, 9 percent of Cook County workers carpooled in 2011, while 9.7 percent in the nation carpooled to work.

• In 2011, 18.5 percent of all workers in Cook County used public transportation – excluding taxicab – to get to their job, compared with 5.0 percent in the nation as a whole.

• About 0.9 percent of all workers in the county biked to work in 2011, compared with 0.6 percent nationally.

Travel time to work:

• In 2011, the average one-way commute to work for people living in Cook County was 31.9 minutes. The average commute nationally was 25.5 minutes.

• About 13.7 percent of all workers had a commute of 60 minutes or more in 2011, compared with 8.1 percent in the nation as a whole.